NEW DELHI, 1 MAR – The latest survey by UNICEF in several countries around the world revealed that in India problems such as marriages between minors are still strongly rooted: in fact 40 percent of all marriages between minors occur in the Subcontinent. The report found that 22 percent of women now aged between 20 and 24 had a child between 15 and 19 years of age. Marriages between minors would actually be illegal: the age was raised to 18 in 1978 from 12 in 1929.
Even consideration of the women rights is low among young people: 57 percent of males between 15 and 19 think that the husband who beats his wife is justified in some circumstances, and almost the same percentage, 53 percent, said the same among the girls same age. Few teenagers, only 35 percent of males and 19 percent of females in this age group, have a comprehensive knowledge of HIV. As for children under five years, 43 percent are malnourished. India is also found among the fifty countries with the highest ratio of deaths in this age group.